Lightning Is the Only Way

Joyce was dying.

There was no more hatred or anger in Joyce's mind, only fear of death.

No one wanted to die!

The very reason why Cultivators wanted to become stronger was that they didn't want to die!

Joyce was no exception.

Gravis was no exception.

Mortis was no exception.

Mortis looked at Joyce's head with furrowed brows.

Joyce's eyes looked at Mortis with fear.

Silence.

Mortis sighed.

Mortis gathered his Soul and Life Laws.

Joyce felt her Spirit recovering.

Her body was regrowing.

A couple seconds later, Joyce had received a new body, and her Spirit was no longer leaving her.

For a while, Joyce only lied on the ground, shock written on her face.

She had nearly died!

Joyce couldn't formulate any thoughts for a full minute.

Her mind was in disarray, and she had never been so close to death.

If Mortis hadn't saved her, she would have died.

Even worse, Joyce had felt the Spirit Sense of at least a hundred other Cultivators inspecting her when she had been dying.

They had only looked on as she was dying.

No one had appeared in front of her.

Joyce felt hurt, betrayed, angry, afraid, and many different things.

She didn't even know what she was feeling right now.

She only knew that she hated feeling like this.

"Take this as a parting gift," Mortis said slowly.

Joyce looked at Mortis.

"I thought long about our situation, and I decided that I don't want to be with you," Mortis said calmly. "Being with you doesn't make me happy, only miserable."

"I wish you luck in finding someone else," Mortis said.

Mortis walked away under Joyce's shocked gaze.

Mortis was breaking up with her!?

Why!?

They had been perfect together!

Mortis had been the perfect man in her mind!

Everything in their relationship had been perfect!

Why would Mortis suddenly break up with her!?

"You're weak!" Joyce suddenly shouted in rage as she stood up. "I don't make you happy!? Is it because you can't handle a strong woman!? Is your confidence so small that you can't feel like a man so long as a woman doesn't just fall down in front of you to suck your dick!?"

"Well, I'm not such a weak-willed pussy! I have power and a strong mindset!"

Mortis sighed again as he turned to look at Joyce.

When Joyce saw Mortis' eyes, her being shook.

Those eyes were filled with pity and sadness.

"Then, why can't I see it?" Mortis asked with a sad voice.

SHING!

Mortis teleported away.

He didn't want to stay near Joyce right now.

Joyce's mind was going through the greatest upheaval ever since she was born, and she had completely lost her ability to create rational thoughts.

She gritted her teeth, pulled at her hair, and looked around in confusion.

It was like this wasn't reality!

Nothing made sense anymore!

What was going on!?

SHING!

Joyce felt a teleportation and looked over. Mortis had to have come back!

Yet, the person in front of Joyce wasn't Mortis.

It was Manuel.

Manuel looked at Joyce with cold eyes that hid a deep regret.

"I once said that the next time you try to kill someone of our Sect, I will banish you," Manuel said with a cold and reprimanding tone.

These words had hit Joyce like a sledgehammer, and her mind lost all sense of rationality again.

SHING!

Joyce's emblems and Formation Arrays left her Spirit Space out of their own volition. The Sect Master had control over all these things, and he could summon them even if they were in someone else's Spirit Space.

Manuel put them away.

"You are no longer a member of the Myriad Sect. You have ten minutes to leave the Sect. If you ever return, you will be treated as a member of a different Sect."

"Goodbye, Joyce. I hope you can deal with your issues," Manuel said.

SHING!

And then, Manuel teleported away again.

Joyce remained unmoving for two full minutes.

Her mind had received one hit after the other today.

Her entire world was breaking down!

Then, all her emotions gathered and transformed into pure rage.

"That weak-willed kid isn't even part of our Sect!" Joyce transmitted to Manuel. "I haven't broken any rules!"

"Not part of our Sect?" Manuel repeated calmly. "Don't play this political game. You know exactly that the Myriad Sect exists because of Gravis. If he isn't part of the Myriad Sect, nobody is."

Joyce's anger exploded once again.

This was so unfair!

This hypocritical Sect!

They were protecting an outsider while dooming their very own commander!

Joyce punched the side of the hallway.

Yet, her punch had been halted by a powerful force.

The Ancestor of the Myriad Sect had gotten involved. If Joyce had punched the walls like this, a gigantic part of the Myriad Sect would have been destroyed, and many Immortal Emperors would have died.

The power of a Star God couldn't easily be unleashed.

Orpheus's Spirit pulled Joyce out of the hallway, and Joyce was pulled into the sky above the Sect.

BANG!

And then, she was thrown into the distance.

Joyce couldn't stop her fall, and she destroyed kilometers of land as her body was stopped by the earth.

For a moment, Joyce could only look at the shining sun above her as she lay on the ground.

Joyce didn't move for another minute.

Eventually, she slowly stood up and dusted herself off.

Her movements were surprisingly calm and orderly.

It was like all her rage had left her.

Joyce calmly looked back at the Myriad Sect and turned around.

There was no rage in her eyes.

All her rage left her, but what replaced them was something different.

Hatred.

It was pure hatred.

Many people thought rage and hatred to be the same thing, but they were actually very different.

Rage was hot. It was like the emotions and mind of a being started to boil into a chaotic mess that wanted to destroy everything around them.

Yet, hatred was the opposite.

Hatred was cold. All the emotions and the mind of a being gathered together with only one goal in mind.

Vengeance!

Rage was trying to destroy everything blindly.

Hatred was trying to destroy a very specific thing with calm planning and determination.

Joyce was no longer just lashing out.

No, her plan was now to destroy the Myriad Sect.

These idiotic weaklings had abandoned her after she had done so much for them.

The Myriad Sect was ungrateful, and they were only interested in appeasing Gravis.

They obviously had never cared for her, and she should have seen that earlier.

They had used her, and as soon as their tool had shown that she was actually a person and not a tool, they had decided to abandon her!

They only wanted to create an army of mindless zombies that followed their orders and ideology!

Such a Sect didn't deserve to exist!

Several people in the Myriad Sect noticed Joyce's cold eyes, and they knew what this meant.

Gravis put his hand on Mortis' shoulder.

"It's not your responsibility," Gravis said calmly.

Mortis' body stopped shaking, and he calmed down.

Manuel took a deep breath with closed eyes.

SHING!

In the distance, Joyce's eyes opened as an unstoppable force neared her.

A moment later, Joyce fell into two pieces.

Manuel had destroyed her Spirit by bisecting her vertically.

The Myriad Sect had been willing to allow Joyce to leave due to her many years of hard work, but the hatred in her eyes had betrayed her actual goal.

Joyce wouldn't peacefully leave.

She would do everything in her power to destroy the Myriad Sect.

Leaving someone like that alive was putting the disciples' lives unnecessarily at risk.

They couldn't keep someone like that alive.

The reason why Mortis' body had shaken was that he had intended to do the job himself.

Mortis had realized that he had been partially at fault for Joyce's meltdown, and he wanted to take responsibility by killing her himself.

However, Joyce had been part of the Myriad Sect, and it was the job of the Sect Master to deal with disciples that wanted to damage the Sect.

Manuel usually always had a lighthearted smile on his face, similar to Arc.

But now, the smile was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, only a dark shadow could be seen on his face.

He had known Joyce for nearly his entire life, and they had worked together during all of these years.

And now, Manuel had killed her.

Even if Joyce had to die for her actions, it still wasn't easy for Manuel.

Yet, this was the job of a Sect Master.

The job didn't only have benefits.

It also carried the heavy weight of responsibility.